Izou VS Akame: The Rewrite
by Espadara
Summary: "As long as I have Izou, I can cover any losses."-Syura. And yet Izou went down like a chump in canon. Not anymore. Izou VS Akame, where Izou actually lives up to the hype.


**AN: Bit of a preface before I start this off.**

**I know a lot of people hate Wild Hunt. But I always thought Izou was fucking cool. I mean, a samurai who fights without a Teigu, and is still hyped up to be crazy strong? That's my fucking jam, man. I also have a weakness towards Yojimbo-esque chin scratchers, sue me.**

**Which is why I was genuinely pretty mad with how the Izou VS Akame fight went down in canon. Barely three pages of battle, then he's down...and to rub salt in the wound, Akame winds up fighting some shitty Danger Beasts shortly after that actually give her more trouble. **

**I'm changing that. Credit to Dragon78591 from the AGK forum for the idea.**

_Finally._

That was the thought that Izou had as he stood across from Akame on the deserted country road, the remnants of Wild Hunt having been ambushed by Night Raid shortly before they could launch an ambush of their own upon the Revolution. A light wind was blowing up dust around them, but Izou stayed steadfastly focused upon Akame-and the curious sword that was in her hands.

"So that is the Imperial Arm, Murasame...the one hit killer." He observed, a light smirk on his face. "Truly, it is an ominous beauty. I can clearly see the craftsmanship worked into the blade." Laughing, he drew his own blade in a well practiced motion, making nary a sound. "_However._ The brilliance of my Kousetsu...is several times greater."

_KillRipTearDestroyBloodFeedNeedBloodFEEDBLOODKILLLNIGHTRAID_

_"_Yes, Kousetsu. I know." Izou whispered to his blade with a blush, soothing the voice inside. He looked at it fondly, though his posture made it clear to Akame that he hadn't forgotten about her. He looked up, and shifted into a stance, Kousetsu raised on his right side, his left hand held back for balance. "It seems that the blood of Night Raid is a rare treat indeed! Kousetsu tells me he desires to drink more of it!"

Akame's eyes widened at the threat, thinking back to recent death of Lubbock. Narrowing her eyes in controlled anger, she raised her sword up in preparation. "I will eliminate you." She stated with conviction.

The two faced off for a moment, Izou grinning as he began contemplating the possible moves Akame would make. _'She apparently took out Enshin, so she's clearly a step above your standard Imperial Swordsman...but I'm faster.'_

Akame took off like a bullet, dodging Izou's initial swing and bringing Murasame to slash Izou's back, only for Izou to quickly turn and meet her with a clashing of metal as Murasame and Kousetsu met, the samurai taking advantage of his greater strength to press forward. Akame swung her blade from underneath Kousetsu, attempting to slice one of Izou's fingers on the way up, but Izou twisted his wrist and Murasame once again met the cold steel of Kousetsu. Leaping back before Izou could press his advantage, she looked cautiously at the member of Wild Hunt.

'_He's better than we thought. The general consensus of Wild Hunt was that they were just Syura's group of serial killers...but he already saw through two of my moves.' _Akame thought to herself, ignoring the sweat running down her face. '_He fights like a man who's seen actual battle.'_

"Good, good." Izou suddenly stated, causing Akame to perk up. He was still standing where she left him, but Kousetsu was now sheathed. A hand was resting on it, clearly prepared to bring it out at a moment's notice, but for now he seemed content to just stand there and look at her with one of his strange eyes.

"I was beginning to think this country was full of weaklings. Everywhere I went, people getting slaughtered by the dozens, not even capable of putting up a token of resistance! It was _infuriating! _This Empire was said to be the strongest country in the world, and yet its citizens are absolutely pathetic!" Izou said with venom in his words. He shook his head, bringing his emotions down after his outburst. "But you members of Night Raid are different. You fight with such conviction! It's truly admirable."

"You killed Lubbock," Akame rebutted, her lips pressed in anger. "after he had already been tortured, and deprived of his Teigu. There was nothing admirable about killing him."

Izou sighed, closing his eyes. "But he chose to fight anyway. His determination to live until the very end...it was truly humbling. And you are the _first person_ in this country not to die after my first series of swings. It makes me nostalgic." He barked out a laugh, and shifted his stance once again, keeping his body weight closer to the ground and keeping both hands on his blade-one on its' sheathe, and one on the handle. "Look at me, talking so much. This country is truly spoiling me. We could never talk this much in Wakoku." He opened an eye, and suddenly his sword was free of its sheath.

Years of training kicked in, and Akame jumped back, feeling a strand of her hair be cut and float gently to the ground in front of her. Her mind kicked into overdrive, trying to analyse what had just occurred. _'His slash managed to reach me, all the way over here...'_

She raised Murasame to block a wild swing of Izou's blade, having to stop her observation to weather under Izou's rain of slashes. Each hit she blocked made her muscles scream, and she could feel a few strikes managing to slip past her guard and leaving small cuts. A small part of her mind briefly noted that it was fortuitous that her opponent wasn't the one with a one hit kill blade, which she ruthlessly crushed to focus back on the fight. An attempt to leap back again to gain some distance failed when he went back into his Iaido pose and did another one of those enhanced slashes.

"I was truly disappointed to see the Shamshir that Enshin possessed." Izou suddenly remarked, obviously seeing Akame's confusion at his attack. "Wind blades...pathetic. _That_ is an ability worthy of a Teigu? They clearly are not as highly advanced as I was often told. Any competent swordsman can do the same, after all." He stated calmly, before noting he was still in the Iaido stance. "Though, admittedly, not with every slash of the blade, nor with such range. I'm afraid such a technique is only available with some amount of focus, and there is only so much physical strength and speed can accomplish." His muscles tightened, and he drew his blade in a quick motion once more to cut off another assault by Akame. The blade of wind would have bisected Akame had she not jumped cleanly over it, swinging Murasame in an attempt to cut Izou's face. He pulled his face back in time, dodging the strike.

"Yes! Keep it up, Akame!" He roared in challenge, bringing Kousetsu down again. Akame swung Murasame around, bouncing Kousetsu off the blade and using the brief interlude to jump back again. She was panting with effort, but took a deep breath and settled back into a stance. She waited for him to attack, but he placed Kousetsu back into its sheath.

"We're the same you know." The Wild Hunt member said, his eyes fully open as he smiled at Akame. "You might think we're not; but we are! I've heard tales of your exploits in the Elite Seven. Forced to become a killer when you were a child...our countries are more similar than I thought."

He smiled wistfully, lost in his memories.

_A much younger Izou, barely above the age of ten, stood surrounded by corpses. Several of them shared the same marking on their clothing as he did; the vast majority however, didn't. He glanced over at a man, nearly thrice his age, attempting to crawl away from the blood soaked battlefield. The boy walked towards him, and calmly stuck his sword into the man's back, a dead look in his eyes as the blood splattered over his face._

"I come from a country, embroiled in civil war between twenty-two provinces." Izou began to explain, perfectly content to put the fight on hold. Akame heard a roar come from some distance away, and hoped Tatsumi and Leone were having luck with their fights; if Izou was willing to extend the fight to a point where her comrades could intercede, she was more than happy to let him. "If you were born into an important family, you were given intense training, and sent out to fight for your province. If you were a no name commoner..." He laughed. "You were sent out to die.

"I was a nobody. Given the choice between dying on the battlefield or on the streets, I eventually learned there was no choice at all. Through luck, I survived. I learned as much as I could, and built myself into a threat with the deaths as my comrades as my foundation. When they died, I saw the mistakes they made and sought to correct them in my own style.

"And then I learned the most important lesson; in this world, you can not rely on anyone other than yourself. Your enemies believe they are correct, and can not be persuaded otherwise. Your allies will eventually betray you for the pettiest of reasons, because human beings are naturally petty creatures. Even people not involved in the conflict will seek your demise, because they are disappointed in their _own_ pathetic lives."

He said this all with utter certainty, clearly believing that he was imparting a grand wisdom to Akame. He looked at her, expecting a response, and continued when he saw none forthcoming. "There is only one place where we are different. You have not accepted it yet; your role as a killer. It is not something that can be forced upon you. You either are a killer, or you are not. You must accept it, or you will never defeat me. That is the unfortunate fact of being a warrior."

"You're wrong."

Izou narrowed his eyes at Akame's rebuttal. "Oh?"

Akame looked at him, readying Murasame. "You keep talking as though we're similar. That you've found a worthy opponent, a fellow warrior. But you're _wrong. _I'm not a swordsman. I never have been, and I never will be." She exhaled, her eyes focused solely on Izou. "I'm an assassin."

Withdrawing Kousetsu, Izou glared at her. "Do not say I didn't warn you." The two stared each other down, another gust of wind blowing around the road. At some unspoken signal, the two raced towards each other.

Izou grinned, bringing Kousetsu down in a swing with such strength that he was certain that it would cut straight through Murasame. Akame, however, made no effort to block or parry. She swiftly moved around the swing, her left hand coming up and releasing dirt into Izou's face.

"Gah!" He cried out, shutting his eyes on reflex and abandoning his swing. Too late, he realized his mistake, forcing his eyes open and leaning back...just as the tip of Murasame sliced right through the pupil on his left eye. He swung wildly with Kousetsu, forcing Akame back, and jabbed his other hand straight into his eye socket, roaring in defiance as he ripped out his own poisoned eye before the poisonous curse of Murasame could spread.

He glared at Akame with one eye, his other now just a empty socket still spewing blood. He abruptly began laughing, yelling towards the sky. "YES! I haven't felt my blood rush this much in years!" He declared happily, looking absolutely ecstatic, blushing up a storm. "I love this! To be so close to death after just a single cut! The odds are against me, just like they were back in my homeland!" He slammed his foot on the ground, rushing forward and unleashing a barrage of slashes at Akame, that she ducked and weaved around, clearly no longer attempting to face him in a contest of strength. Izou thrusted his sword forward, and with a smirk, Akame leapt backwards, just a shadow descended from above.

The samurai barely rose his sword in time, blocking a stab from Tatsumi's Neuntote. "You-!"

"Tatsumi!" Akame called out in appreciation.

"Thought you could use a hand!" He declared, using Incursio's heightened strength to force Izou back quite a distance away. Akame walked forward to stand by his side, and whispered to her comrade. "He's much stronger than we expected. Though what's strange is he hasn't yet shown any sign of having a Teigu."

Izou was almost growling in his rage now, his eye now focused solely on Tatsumi. "Disgusting...not only do you interrupt a one on one fight, but you allowed yourself to be..._defiled _by that Teigu." He spat out the name, his grip on Kousetsu's handle turning white. "I can smell it's stench seeping into you. A fool who mistakes his Teigu's strength for his own is one thing. What you have done...it is an affront against nature."

"If you're so strong, then why kill innocents who have no chance of fighting back?!" Tatsumi retorted, lunging at Izou with surprising speed, and the two of them entered a dance of blades. Izou had grabbed his sheathe sometime during the clash, using it in conjunction with Kousetsu to keep Tatsumi at bay, landing crushing blows that Tatsumi felt beneath Incursio. "You can talk all you want about weakness, but in the end you're nothing but a psycho that needs to be put down!"

"You know nothing!" Izou roared, his strikes speeding up. He slammed his sheathe into Tatsumi's chest, who grabbed it with both hands to keep him there. Izou's working eye widened, and he moved with a speed that Tatsumi would have attributed to a Teigu had the samurai not made his opinion on them known. He swung Kousetsu, blocking Akame's swing of Murasame. He was clearly beginning to struggle with the deadlock, but his muscles tightened and the arm holding Kousetsu began to shift, clearly an attempt to knock Akame away so he could deal with Tatsumi...

Only for a yellow blur to shoot from the tree line and kick him straight in the gut, forcing an explosion of blood from his mouth and knocking him out of Tatsumi's grip, losing his own hold on his sheathe. He was launched several yards away from them, struggling up to his feet. "I'm fine, Kousetsu..." He whispered gently, forcing his head up through willpower. A new arrival had joined the Night Raid members, and he had to think for some time to recognize her as the lion woman that had squared off against Dorothea.

"Man, this guy still isn't down yet? He must be pretty tough for you to have trouble, Akame." Leone said, cracking her knuckles. "But with the three of us here, he'll go down without a hitch."

"Careful, nee-san." Tatsumi cautioned. "He's pretty strong, for someone with no Teigu."

Izou walked forward with some difficulty, but his grip on Kousetsu was as strong as ever. "If you're both here...I see. So Dorothea and Cosmina are dead." He closed his eye, and sighed. "Once more, Kousetsu is the only one by my side."

The members of Night Raid tensed in preparation for the next attack, and Izou chuckled lightly. "I did not care for Wild Hunt. They were weaklings who exclusively targeted the weak, believing they were invincible because of their Teigu. It was pathetic. And yet..." He paused, reflecting on Cosmina's feelings towards them that held her Danger Beast form back from attacking them. "They were still my comrades." He muttered, sounding surprised despite himself. "For that, at least, I will do my best to avenge them." He ripped off his upper layer of clothing, most of it already frayed from his clashes with Akame and Tatsumi, leaving him covered only in bandages that stretched from his chest down to his forearms.

He pulled Kousetsu back up, a sickening aura surrounding him. "Now then...it is feeding time, Kousetsu."

The Night Raid members rushed towards Izou, Tatsumi leading the pack and clashing Neuntote against Izou's blade. With a simple turn of his wrist Izou slipped into Tatsumi's guard, bringing Kousetsu up with surprising strength and leaving a slash on Incursio's armor. He then brought Kousetsu back, slamming the hilt into Leone's stomach when she attempted to attack from behind. Akame was next, swinging Murasame down with great speed, but Izou twisted to the side, watching the blade miss him by millimeters. Kousetsu was brought up again, knocking Murasame out of Akame's hand. He shifted his grip, bringing Kousetsu down in a swing that would cut Akame in two, straight down the middle.

Leone punched him straight in the spine with force that would have shattered it in a normal man, but still forced him to abort the swing as he growled in pain. This gave Akame time to leap away, grabbing Murasame as she did so, and run back in for another strike. Knocking Leone away with a vicious backhand, Izou turned his attention to the lethal strike, barely swinging Kousetsu in time to parry Murasame with the tip of Kousetsu...and that is when Tatsumi struck.

Running forward with Neuntote extended, Tatsumi jabbed with all of his Incursio enhanced might. Izou brought Kousetsu forward, but Leone jumped back in and grabbed one of his arms, forcing him to block Neuntote with only one hand to brace Kousetsu.

A loud crack rang out, and Izou stared in stunned disbelief at the shattered remains of his beloved sword. Pieces were scattered on the ground...and a particularly large piece was stabbed straight through his chest. He fell to his knees, coughing up blood, as Leone let go of her grip on him and returned to Tatsumi and Akame's side.

"Y-you..." Izou whispered, barely able to form the words. He glared at Tatsumi with such hatred that it almost made the assassin step back. "You broke him..."

"You're finished, Izou." Akame said, walking forward, Murasame glinting in excitement at the upcoming kill. "This is for Lubbock." She brought Murasame up, and Izou grinned.

"I have...one last word of warning..." He coughed out, looking at Akame with such intensity. "Until you get eyes like mine...until you hear the little war horn...you will _never _be able to face the Empire's strongest. No matter how many interfere on your behalf.

"Because she understands...what it means to be a kill-urgh!" Izou gurgled as Akame sliced through his throat, nearly severing his head. He made no attempt to stop the bleeding, still smiling as he fell on his face.

Night Raid smiled at each other, and Tatsumi laughed as he undid Incursio. "Guess that's the end of Wild Hunt."

Leone looked at Tatsumi and Akame, putting her arms around them as they began walking off. "You said it! Guess it's time to take it easy for a while, yea?" She looked at Akame, who was looking at Izou's dying form. "Akame?"

_'Wakoku...and the little war horn...' _Akame thought to himself. '_How would he...?'_

"Earth to Akame!" Leone said, waving her hand in front of Akame's face. "You alright?"

Akame smiled, and nodded. "Yea." She said, walking forward with her friends. "Let's go home."

Izou gazed at them with his single eye, already feeling the life leaving him. _'And so...I come to a battlefield...that even I cannot escape from...' _He closed his eyes, giving in to death.

_'Finally.'_


End file.
